Alleluia! Jesus is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia!
Jesus is risen! Now what?!
Today’s gospel reading finds Peter and the other disciples out fishing. Jesus was raised from the dead, and appeared to them on Easter evening and then a week later. Both times they were locked away; fearful; uncertain.
Perhaps after two appearances it finally sunk in that Jesus is not dead, but alive! Victorious over the grave, walking the earth again, appearing among them. Which is nice and all, but they’d been following him for three years and were rather busy alongside him, listening, and healing, and traveling, and asking questions, and proclaiming the good news of the coming reign of God. And now that Jesus is alive, but mostly not with them, what are they supposed to do?
What do you do when you’re feeling overwhelmed, or confused, or unsure? Do you go back to those activities that are comforting and familiar and routine? Peter did. “I’m going fishing,” he says to the others. “We will go with you,” they reply. Fishing. That sounds good. And not the kind of strange and uncertain “fishing for people” that Jesus called them for – but just ordinary, plain old fishing for fish.
I wonder how they felt when the sun began to rise over their empty fishing boat and they stretched their stiff bodies. Were they frustrated? Upset? Was it comforting to just go through the familiar motions even if it yielded nothing? Did it feel like a whole evening, wasted? Had they been unable to sleep anyway, so fishing was a welcome distraction?
However they felt, and however annoying or surprising or welcome they found the voice from the shore, when the stranger on the beach suggested that they drop their nets on the other side of the boat, they did it. And in that moment of being overtaken by abundance in the face of nothing, they recognized Jesus’ calling card. “The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’”
Reaching the shore, Jesus’ friends are met with wonderful hospitality - a charcoal fire, grilled fish, fresh bread. Warmth and sustenance. Abundance. And reconciliation.
After they eat, Jesus speaks to Peter. Sitting around a charcoal fire, Jesus asks three times, “Simon son of John do you love me?” As Jesus questioned him, I wonder how quickly Peter was transported back to another charcoal fire, and to three other questions to which he gave very different answers.
Perhaps you remember these words from just a few short weeks ago - “Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus...Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. The woman said to Peter, ‘You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?’ He said, ‘I am not.’
"Now the slaves and the police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing around it and warming themselves. Peter also was standing with them and warming himself...They asked him, ‘You are not also one of his disciples, are you?’ He denied it and said, ‘I am not.’ One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, ‘Did I not see you in the garden with him?’ Again Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.”
Was Peter burning with shame as Jesus asked him again and again, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Did his voice crack with a mixture of sorrow and conviction and hope as he responded not “no” but “yes” - “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
Jesus knew. And, he reminded Peter what it looks like to love him. This love isn’t a mushy feeling, or warm thoughts toward someone else. No, this love is living and active. This love follows closely behind Jesus, actively caring, feeding, sharing. Feed my lambs, Jesus tells Peter. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep. Follow me.
Jesus comes to his friends in the midst of the ordinary and mundane rhythms of life, offering abundance - an abundance of fish, an abundance of welcome, an abundance of forgiveness - and strengthens and sends them to share it.
So too does Jesus come to us in the midst of our ordinary, daily tasks, offering abundance. An abundance of forgiveness, an abundance of welcome, an abundance of community. So too does Jesus call us to follow, to tend, and to feed.
Jesus is risen! Now what?! Be fed, and keep on feeding. Be welcomed, and keep on welcoming. Be loved, and keep on loving.
The one who knows everything knows our shame and failure, our weakness and grief, our strength and triumph and joy. Jesus doesn’t shy away from those places. Jesus doesn’t send us away in our failure or relieve us of our calling. Instead, in our failure and in our success he knows us deeply and loves us fully. He welcomes us with warmth and sustenance and calls us again to follow, tend, and feed. Jesus is risen! Thanks be to God. Amen.
Jesus is risen! Now what?!
Today’s gospel reading finds Peter and the other disciples out fishing. Jesus was raised from the dead, and appeared to them on Easter evening and then a week later. Both times they were locked away; fearful; uncertain.
Perhaps after two appearances it finally sunk in that Jesus is not dead, but alive! Victorious over the grave, walking the earth again, appearing among them. Which is nice and all, but they’d been following him for three years and were rather busy alongside him, listening, and healing, and traveling, and asking questions, and proclaiming the good news of the coming reign of God. And now that Jesus is alive, but mostly not with them, what are they supposed to do?
What do you do when you’re feeling overwhelmed, or confused, or unsure? Do you go back to those activities that are comforting and familiar and routine? Peter did. “I’m going fishing,” he says to the others. “We will go with you,” they reply. Fishing. That sounds good. And not the kind of strange and uncertain “fishing for people” that Jesus called them for – but just ordinary, plain old fishing for fish.
I wonder how they felt when the sun began to rise over their empty fishing boat and they stretched their stiff bodies. Were they frustrated? Upset? Was it comforting to just go through the familiar motions even if it yielded nothing? Did it feel like a whole evening, wasted? Had they been unable to sleep anyway, so fishing was a welcome distraction?
However they felt, and however annoying or surprising or welcome they found the voice from the shore, when the stranger on the beach suggested that they drop their nets on the other side of the boat, they did it. And in that moment of being overtaken by abundance in the face of nothing, they recognized Jesus’ calling card. “The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’”
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| Photo by Lukas Budimaier on Unsplash |
After they eat, Jesus speaks to Peter. Sitting around a charcoal fire, Jesus asks three times, “Simon son of John do you love me?” As Jesus questioned him, I wonder how quickly Peter was transported back to another charcoal fire, and to three other questions to which he gave very different answers.
Perhaps you remember these words from just a few short weeks ago - “Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus...Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. The woman said to Peter, ‘You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?’ He said, ‘I am not.’
"Now the slaves and the police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing around it and warming themselves. Peter also was standing with them and warming himself...They asked him, ‘You are not also one of his disciples, are you?’ He denied it and said, ‘I am not.’ One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, ‘Did I not see you in the garden with him?’ Again Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.”
Was Peter burning with shame as Jesus asked him again and again, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Did his voice crack with a mixture of sorrow and conviction and hope as he responded not “no” but “yes” - “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
Jesus knew. And, he reminded Peter what it looks like to love him. This love isn’t a mushy feeling, or warm thoughts toward someone else. No, this love is living and active. This love follows closely behind Jesus, actively caring, feeding, sharing. Feed my lambs, Jesus tells Peter. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep. Follow me.
Jesus comes to his friends in the midst of the ordinary and mundane rhythms of life, offering abundance - an abundance of fish, an abundance of welcome, an abundance of forgiveness - and strengthens and sends them to share it.
So too does Jesus come to us in the midst of our ordinary, daily tasks, offering abundance. An abundance of forgiveness, an abundance of welcome, an abundance of community. So too does Jesus call us to follow, to tend, and to feed.
Jesus is risen! Now what?! Be fed, and keep on feeding. Be welcomed, and keep on welcoming. Be loved, and keep on loving.
The one who knows everything knows our shame and failure, our weakness and grief, our strength and triumph and joy. Jesus doesn’t shy away from those places. Jesus doesn’t send us away in our failure or relieve us of our calling. Instead, in our failure and in our success he knows us deeply and loves us fully. He welcomes us with warmth and sustenance and calls us again to follow, tend, and feed. Jesus is risen! Thanks be to God. Amen.
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